"Japanese Dinner" twin quilts

Phew, I finished! Here they are, Twin Quilts, Take 2!

I had so much fun making the Riley Blake Wheels twin quilts, and it was fun to start fresh with a totally new design for this set for another pair of good friends who also recently had twin boys. Like the "original" twin quilts, I wanted to make something coordinating, yet individual. To do this, I decided to use the same colors, but vary the design.

For the first quilt, I used a Bento Box design, framed by white sashing. For the second, I used the same concept, but in circles instead of squares. Due to the round shape, I named these "Mixed Sushi Rolls" as a nod to their square cousin. Together....a nice Japanese dinner :-)
I used entirely blue and green solids (inspired by this quilt), just purchased from my local quilt store. I love love love this color scheme! I threw one print into the mix on each quilt top just to catch the eye- the square patterned Monaluna Mingle for the Bento Box quilt, and some Amy Butler Sunspots for the Sushi quilt.

To further tie the two quilts together, I added a patch of squares on the sashing on the Sushi quilt, and then circles in the same region on the Bento Box quilt. These patches in the sashing were mirrored on the backs. I even pieced in some of the patch material in the binding to give the illusion that it wraps around, resembling a tab. I personalized the quilts in these squares and circles with hand stitching in bright orange.

Aside from that small detail, the backs are otherwise identical.

I used the large scale Michael Miller Megatropolis print on the backs, which is funky, bright and fun. This print was actually the inspiration for these quilts....planned the back first, a little "backwards", I know! I bordered the print on either side by blue solids. The print is trimmed by strips of black dots that match the binding. I love this fabric and its soft little grey dots, just picked it up at my local quilt store. I think the black adds a bit of maturity to the quilt and grounds it, as well as really complimenting the Michael Miller print.
Quilting was a true lesson in frustration. I had originally intended to do the Sushi quilt in free motion curves, and the Bento in straight line boxes. Turns out my Bento Boxes were a little more wonky than I had planned...don't know how/why things don't line up when I cut them precisely, and use a 1/4 seam foot to piece, but hopefully down the road, experience will help with that. Anyways, the wonky factor made it very difficult to sew straight lines, because it either looked straight against the front and crooked on the back, or vice versa. More than a few cringes during this one! The vertical lines looked fine, but the horizontal ones were looking shabby, especially since the back panel did not seem to line up (looks like I suck at basting, too!). Anyways, ended up tearing it all out (ugh.), which took about SIX hours. In the end I decided to do free motion stippling for both to better camouflage the glaring errors! Oh, how I long to be a straight line goddess like Rita at Red Pepper Quilts! But I think it all worked out for a reason, the quilts better suit this randomness. This was only my second go at free motion (I also did it for the other twin quits) and I was much more comfortable and consistent (that is a very relative statement!). Funny thing is I realized after I was done that I had forgotten to drop my feed dogs...how did it even work?? Who knows, but I am happy with how it turned out. Especially once washed- so nice and crinkly!

Finished them off with little labels hand stitched onto the back:
Can't wait to deliver these to two very adorable little guys.....hope they like them! I will take payment in the form of snuggles, please!

Sharing with my friends at Quilt Story and Sew and Tell!